Trident Hyundai Service Center "scratching" my i10!

This is a discussion on Trident Hyundai Service Center "scratching" my i10! within Indian Car Dealerships, part of the Team-BHP Reviews category; I purchased a new Hyundai car (i10 Electric Red color) on 31-Oct-2008 from Trident Hyundai, Sankey Road, Bangalore showroom. The ...

I purchased a new Hyundai car (i10 Electric Red color) on 31-Oct-2008 from Trident Hyundai, Sankey Road, Bangalore showroom. The buying experience was overall good although it could have been better.

As it was about 2 months since I purchased the car, it was due for its 1st free service, I took the car on 29th December 2008 morning around 9:00 AM to Trident Hyundai authorized service center at Sheshadripuram, Bangalore.
I was attended to by a Service Advisor (SA) promptly.

There were some minor scratches caused by dry grass on the left side of the car body starting from just behind the left head light to the back of the car till the petrol tank and also on the left ORVM.
Again on the left side itself, almost at the bottom of the front bumper there were about 2 or 3 deep scratches of about 3/4 inch or 1 inch long curvy lines.

Other than these there were no other scratches anywhere else on the car.

The service advisor (SA) gave me the service slip (original) and told me that he will call me around 4:00 PM on 29-Dec-2008 and let me know if the car will be ready after service.

Around 4:16 PM, the SA called me and said that the car is ready and I can come and take it.
I reached the service center at around 5:00 PM and as I was walking towards the reception, I saw my vehicle being polished and the final cleaning being done in the parking lot. I stopped there to take a look at the vehicle.

The scratches on the left side of the body were not attended to at all and the SA said that nothing can be done about it and I will have to get the whole body repainted again. I advised him to apply rubbing compound at least it would lighten these scratches and he reluctantly agreed and after applying the rubbing compound in front of him and me, it did lighten a little bit.
The other deep scratches at the left bottom of the front bumper also was not attended to and upon insisting the SA said that he will have it done in the next 15 min or so.

During this time I noticed about 3 - 4 new deep scratches on the front bumper just near the black plastic below the head light on the driver's side which were not there when I had left the car for service.
The SA said that these scratches were there when I had left the car for servicing in the morning.
He said it had also been marked on the service slip. I asked the SA to get the copy of the service slip with him.
To my shock the SA showed his copy of the service slip on which the new scratches were marked on it.
At this point, I showed him the original service slip in which there was no mention of these new scratches which was written by him in the morning.

Not only my car was mishandled by the service center staff and gave new scratches to my car at the service center, whoever had done it had modified the service slip to take the blame off them and blame it on me.

I would really like to highlight the unethical / unprofessional behaviour of the service center staff and the SA here trying to blame the scratches happened at the service center on me.

I do understand that practically it is not possible to every single scratch and every single dent on the service slip, but these scratches were right in the front on the car which was clearly visible even standing away at about 7 feet from the car and there is no way anyone could miss such big and deep scratches while inspecting the vehicle.

I also understand that the SA cannot be with my car all the time.
As far as I am concerned, SA is a representative of the service center who is my contact and the person who is in charge of my car, who is in charge of the service being carried out on my car and responsible for all the other people who handle my car during the process of servicing it.

Finally after negotiating hard with the SA, he agreed to have the new scratches repaired at no cost to me.
The SA asked me to leave the car with him so that he can have the new scratches fixed and he would call me on 30-Dec-2008 around 4:00 PM and let me know if the car is ready.
On 30-Dec-2008, I called the SA around 4:05 PM and asked if my car was ready, he said that he would call me in about an hours time and let me know if I can pick it up.
Around 5:13 PM, the SA called me and said that my car is ready and I can pick it up.
I went to the service center around 6:00 PM and the new scratches were fixed to my satisfaction.
But the old scratches at the left bottom of the front bumper were patched with some paint and it was looking shabby.
After all this I did not want to leave my car any longer with the service center, I took the car and left.
This again shows the sloppy attitude of the SA and the staff of not attending to the detail.

I would like to highlight here that by doing such cheap things like modifying the service slip to hide their fault etc. they are putting down the name of Trident as well as Hyundai.

This is completely unethical and unprofessional behaviour by the SA and the service center staff which makes me think if I made a correct decision by trusting Trident and Hyundai and buying a Hyundai car from Trident.

Please take note of this unethical practice by the staff of Trident Hyundai Service Center at Sheshadripuram.

After this I wrote an email and marked copies to the customer care email ID of HMIL, some top brass at Trident Hyundai and the Sheshadripuram service center manager.
After about a day or two the service center manager called me and offered me to have the full bumper on the front repainted free of cost.
I have been busy with my work. Will look at getting it done in Feb may be.

Anyone else had similar experiences with Trident Hyundai service centers either the same one or some others, I would like to know.

Really surprising outcome from Hyundai A.S & S. I believe that the Service Centers are now ill equipped to handle a lot of cars. Now they dont even sometimes have space to park the cars, let alone the staff.

In your case, these scratches around headlamp could have come when some attendant was trying to park the car. But the behavior is not good. First they dont attend to your request, ask you to get the entire car repainted i.e. looking for more business, then damage the car and to end it all, they try their best to cover up for their mistakes.

Its good to see Hyundai reacting fast to your requirements, but if possible, ( I know its damm difficult ), remain with the car when it is being serviced. This way we can have a look at what really happens to car after the owner has left.

If the dealer is offering you to repaint the bumper for free of cost, go ahead and do it. Also give him your peice of mind.

while the service center has been sloppy and careless, i am quite happy that Hyundai reacted fast to your complaints. We should give Kudos to Hyundai here. How often we see manufacturers acting so fast on customer complaints and even give a good resolution.

I have been lucky many a times before, that the staff at Castrol bike zone/ Nikhi motors for my bike and a place called “Le Mans” for my car ,near my place have been ever so kind to let me, I sit there and watch them work on my bike/car.

I have spent 30 minutes to 8 hours just gazing at them, whilst the vehicle is been attended to.

Guess, I am lucky I have time on my hands.

Note: Gazing needs to be done with a pinch of salt, I mean high discretion needs to be exercised else these guys would feel being watched over and they may not like it.

I have been lucky many a times before, that the staff at Castrol bike zone/ Nikhi motors for my bike and a place called “Le Mans” for my car ,near my place have been ever so kind to let me, I sit there and watch them work on my bike/car.

Hi sorry for the delay in writing back , was held up with something, the name is “Le Mans”, however these guys are only authorized Maruti service guys, quite a small place actually, this is at Jalahalli West , Bangalore North, a lot of defence personnel get their cars serviced as well, again purely Maruti products.

I purchased a new Hyundai car (i10 Electric Red color) on 31-Oct-2008 from Trident Hyundai, Sankey Road, Bangalore showroom. The buying experience was overall good although it could have been better.
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Anyone else had similar experiences with Trident Hyundai service centers either the same one or some others, I would like to know.

Collfyre Sir, Here's the link to my post on the experience I have witnessed with Trident Seshadripuram.

This happened during my second service which I got it done last saturday.

This time it was Trident Hyundai, Yeshwantpur service center.

I left the vehicle with some questions/complaints about the car such as low pickup, rattling sound, hard gear shift etc.
I had requested them to do a brush touch up of the paint to cover couple of scratches on the front bumper to the left almost at the bottom and another couple of scratches on the rear bumper to the right side.

That evening, I went and met the service guy and he took me to my car.
The car was dirty, it looked like they had cleaned the car, but a very shabby piece of work. It looked like whoever had cleaned the car body had used the same dirty cloth to wipe ORVMs as both ORVMs had that dusty stain and hardly could see anything. I asked the guy if the car was cleaned or not to which he said that it was cleaned but since it was kept outside in the open, the dust has collected on it again.
Now when I looked at the couple of scratches on the rear bumper on the right side where they had done a brush touch up, I could see a dent there. I touch around that area and I could feel the dent. I am pretty side it was not there before and there since there were some scratches there the guy said whenever those scratches happened, the dent has happened because of the impact and it was not visible because of the dust.
The paint on the dent was intact, I just kept quiet as I had no way of proving it to him that the dent was not there before.
I get my car cleaned every day by a guy at my building and every sunday, I clean the interiors myself and check the car thouroughly. I would have known if the dent was there.
Now there were some new minor scratches on the rear bumper on the left side. I told the service guy about these new scratches. He was neither apologetic about it nor willing to accept it. He just said, they are minor sir, I will get it done and he just got out some paint in a small bottle cap with a small paint brush and just touched it up.
I just told him that I am definitely not happy with the cleaning of the car and the dent and the new scrathes althought they are minor. It may be one among the 50000 cars for them but its my car. He just stood there and smiled and said nothing.
I just didn't feel like taking it up with them. I just took my car and left.

I am happy with the fact that they had attended to the other compaints about ratting noise, low pickup, hard gear shift and sorted it out to my satisfaction.

You should put a complaint in the complaint box or take it to service manager they will fix it for you. You should not compromise with the service center
Road and Service center scratches and dents are two different things

with so many cars flowing in the service center, these things do happen. Depends on how you take it. It can happen on road too.

With this attitude we will never progress. I think coolfyre has every right to be upset. After all you're paying for the service. Before someone points out the the 1st, 2nd etc services are free, let me remind you, they are NOT free. You've paid for them as a part of the initial cost of the car.

Coolfyre you should demand a proper repainting of your bumpers. Don't take it lying down or else they'll take you for a ride everytime. Put your foot down once and they'll never mess with you again.

With this attitude we will never progress. I think coolfyre has every right to be upset. After all you're paying for the service. Before someone points out the the 1st, 2nd etc services are free, let me remind you, they are NOT free. You've paid for them as a part of the initial cost of the car.

Coolfyre you should demand a proper repainting of your bumpers. Don't take it lying down or else they'll take you for a ride everytime. Put your foot down once and they'll never mess with you again.

Its right to be upset and also demand the SA to repaint etc to bring the car back in shape. However, such things do happen at service centers, as long as they are repairing it for free one should accept it.

with so many cars flowing in the service center, these things do happen. Depends on how you take it. It can happen on road too.

Wow! What a way to look at it!

Guess your attitude is just to use materials for the need and not be bothered with anything else. Sorry man, not all are like that. Some people expect the minimum level of responsibility when we hand our vehicles to them and we spend our money on the work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tanwaramit

Its right to be upset and also demand the SA to repaint etc to bring the car back in shape. However, such things do happen at service centers, as long as they are repairing it for free one should accept it.

I would never accept it if it happened and would not leave it just like that even if they do it for "FREE". Do not think anyone here is out for that. But then, every man to himself.

Hmm.. I'm guessing it’s the sheer volume of cars these guys sell. I travel by the sankey road showroom every day to work and I notice atleast 4-5 cars parked up front for delivery at around 11am. I’m sure when all of their customers come back for a service that place isn’t big enough to handle all that volume. I’m thinking, if there isn’t much space around for a couple of cars, they park them elsewhere and get them back to the showroom only a day or two prior to the actual service. I’m quite sure of how their guys handle cars at the showroom…high revving as if every car is a sports car with the air-con on full and nipping through traffic.

I’ve had one incident with Automart Bangalore when they returned my esteem after a free service; I noticed a clear dent on my front fender. Didn’t have to do anything, just my expression got them to take it back and get it done in a days time.

Moral of the story… take a hard look at the car both interior, exterior and feel how it drivers before you completely accept your car from a service. Coz once you’re out, it’s going to be hard for you to convince them of their ignorance.